I Don't Know Why I Like You
by Dreaming-Of-A-Nightmare
Summary: Because I shouldn't like you; you're the best friend of the guy who tormented MY best friend. But to me, you're cute and funny, and I think you might be the only guy who can handle my level of sass. .:. Merzimio, Azimio/Mercedes. drabble. twoshot.
1. How It Began

She didn't want to admit to it. It would be completely blasphemous if she liked him. After all, this guy is the best friend of Kurt's bully. This guy helped bully Kurt, as a matter of fact. So how could she start liking him this way? Sure, he's funny, and sure, he was pretty good at doing 'Thriller' with them, and sure, he has a nice speaking voice… but are these really reasons for her to develop a crush on Azimio Adams?

Shaking her head at herself, Mercedes flips back her hair and lifts her nose into the air slightly. It's no big deal. She can brush off this crush no problem. She doesn't need a man, as she's repeatedly said. Even as Valentine's Day comes and passes, she proclaims quite proudly that she's a diva who doesn't need anyone.

But Mercedes Jones is many things, and one of those things happens to be romantically lonely.

She begins wondering every time she sees Azimio in the hallway or every time she skirts past him in class or at lunch what he might be like to the girls he dates. Or, really, if he's ever dated at all. Would he treat her right? Would he be an asshole? She wants to know.

Worrying her flawlessly glossy bottom lip, she goes to the one girl she knows has experience and will be too clueless to leak any information.

Brittany.

"Hey 'Cedes," Brittany smiles in her ditzy way. The blonde's face falls when she sees the anxious expression on the mocha girl's face. "Did your cat fall asleep like Sleeping Beauty, too?"

Mercedes frowns, looking taken aback. But she shrugs off the potentially troublesome and tragic statement and moves on. "Britt, hon… you've dated, like, every guy on the football team at one point, right? Or have at least made out with them?"

Brittany nods. "Duh, of course. That's, like, my Dobby."

"…You mean 'hobby?'"

Brittany gasps. "House elves don't like to be called that, 'Cedes! It's rude," Brittany adds in a whisper.

Forcing herself not to roll her eyes, Mercedes tries again. "Anyway, have you ever gone out with Azimio Adams?"

Brittany makes a face, the two gears in her brain grinding together as she thinks back to this. Her eyes go around in a full circle until they blink, she smiles lightly, and the pupils reconnect with Mercedes'. "Oh, yeah! The cute chubby one? Yeah, I dated him once. He dumped me 'cause he said he decided he didn't like dating 'skinny white girls.' But I don't get it; I only got covered in flour _once _when we were baking cookies together; that doesn't make me white _all _the time."

Ignoring Brittany's usual naïveté and weight-related remarks, Mercedes takes one detail into consideration to help her mission. "You… baked cookies with him?"

"Yeah, totally. His mom is one of those amazing cooks. She baked me all kinds of stuff, and her mashed potatoes are, like, the yummiest thing ever," Brittany relays with a serious face. "You should totally think about dating him, 'Cedes. He's real nice when he's not, y'know, picking on the Glee Club." She smiles easily again. She cocks her head to one side. "Hey, want his cell number? I keep every guy's number in case I need it or forget it. It helps."

Mercedes nods slowly. "Oh. Uh… yeah, okay. Thanks. But you know, I don't need a man."

Brittany makes a scoffing sound as she uses her phone to send Mercedes the contact information. "Oh, I know _that. _You're, like, Superwoman. 'Cept… Superwoman has horrible fashion sense and isn't as pretty or as bodacious-ly curvaceous as you are."

Mercedes smiles sweetly. "Thanks, hon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have something to do."

Brittany waves as Mercedes leaves the choir room. "'Kay. See you, 'Cedes."

.o0o.

It takes a short while – Kurt isn't answering some of his texts as quickly as he does – but within the course of twenty minutes, Mercedes has convinced her best friend that it's okay that she's going to try this.

'Look, I know you dislike him almost as much as you hate Karofsky, but lately I can't get him outta my head, okay, bb? I promise I will end things if he continues being a jerk. It's just… he's the only guy who can handle this piece of sassy ass, and I want to test it out. KK? – Merce.'

'…_Fine, you win, Mercedes. But only b/c I can't argue with you any longer, and if this will make you happy, I can't say I'm entirely against it. But if he does anything stupid, you can always tell me and I'll get Finn and Puck and Mike to kick his arse. – Kurt.'_

Grinning to herself, Mercedes opens a new message and types in the phone number Brittany gave her. She bites her lips as she sends the text, wondering how he'll respond. They only worked together a few times in their school life; once in seventh grade for an English project, and twice in high school on two completely different occasions: 'Thriller' and something for chemistry class. But that's it. Does he even know who she is? – Well, it's kind of hard not to, since Mercedes makes sure to make herself know, but…

A text comes back, and with a lurch in her stomach and a skip of her heart's beating, she checks the screen on her cell.

A slow grin begins to consume her features, and heat rise to her face.

'Hey, Chocolate Mama. Sure, I'll go to Breadstix wit choo this Friday at 6. Hope we can get 2 kno each other much betta. – Az.'

She didn't want to admit it, but she likes him a lot more already.


	2. And How Things Changed

The first couple dates had been a little awkward.

She loves music, singing, being with friends, and being sassy-sarcastic-dramatic.

He loves playing and watching football, going fishing, being at family meals, and being cocky-sarcastic-teasing.

But they agree on a few things: comedy films, being happy drunks, standing by the people they care about, saying "whatever; I do what I want" to the rest of the world, and thinking that New Orleans is somewhere they'd love to visit when they have the time and money when they're older.

Azimio is surprisingly amazing with girlfriends he has. To Mercedes, he acts like what one might expect a boyfriend to act like: he opens doors for her, he learns her order so she doesn't have to say it, he pays for her, he doesn't kiss her on the mouth until the third date, and even after over a month of dating (the month-anniversary of which he remembered and got her something), he doesn't pester her for sex, since he knows that she isn't easy.

In fact, she's never easy. Through all of this, she still tries to be independent. Mercedes _is _a strong young woman who can fight her own battles, and she doesn't need a man to be at her every beck and call, as nice as it is. And Az respects that.

So, sometimes, he lets her pay for some of her own things when she tells him she insists. He backs off when she beats him to the punch in opening a door. When she complains about something, he tries to fix it, or simply agrees with her about a situation he can't help and feels the same way about.

It's a back-and-forth, give-and-take relationship. Azimio coaxes Mercedes into appreciating sports just a little, and in return, she gets him to lay off of Glee Club, especially when she discovers about two months into the relationship that he loves R&B and jazz music.

They go to the same movies together, and start hanging out together.

And when Azimio joins Glee Club, Mercedes is shocked to find Karofsky in the room with them all, as if his fears of his friend disapproving of his love for Glee being his only reason for not joining permanently when Finn offered the first time. And Mercedes is shocked to find, too, that by dating Azimio, a footballer and friend of the biggest asshole in school (in her opinion, anyway), things begin to change.

The Glee Club gets less shit from the football team, even if the hockey team is still being a bunch of mullet-haired bitches. And, further still, Karofsky starts acting… nicer. He almost seems cool, and it's something that prompts Mercedes to talk to Kurt about coming back to McKinley if at least for next year if not this year (since it's getting closer to the end of the second semester).

It's a funny thing, too, when junior prom rolls around, an event between Regionals and Nationals. Azimio takes her, naturally, after leaving an extravagant method of asking in her locker one morning (confetti inside, streamers with a balloon taped to the front, and large letters that say, 'Will U Go 2 Prom Wit Me?').

It's a wonder that so much change in her life could happen simply because she dared going for a guy she didn't mean to dig on and who had a rough history with her and her friends. And yet it feels utterly right, something she can feel every time she kisses him or has his arms around her.

And, as if to add to all the playful, flirtatious teasing and bickering between them, as if to solidify their weird-but-functional relationship, Azimio mumbles embarrassedly into her ear while they slow-dance at the prom, "I love you, Mercedes Jones."

She doesn't even hesitate to say it right back.


End file.
